The Gospel of Matthew is treasured as the Gospel of the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus' teaching sets it apart from the other Gospels. It is precious to generation after generation of Christians because of its fusion of gospel and ethics, of faith and morality.

This commentary proceeds unit by unit, rather than verse by verse, to emphasize what each passage of Matthew means to the author of the Gospel and to the modern church. Douglas Hare shows that the purpose of Matthew's writing is to convince Christians that a genuine faith in Christ must be demonstrated in daily obedience and that faith and ethics are two sides of the same coin.

According to Hare, the turning point in Matthew is the narrative of Peter's confession and the subsequent passion announcement. His commentary stresses the close connection between the Great Commission, with which the Gospel closes, and the moral imperatives of the Sermon on the Mount.